Category: opinion/news

In short, many religious Christians of a traditionalist bent believed that liberals not only reduce their deeply held beliefs to bigotry, but want to run them out of their jobs, close down their stores and undermine their institutions. When I first posted about this on Facebook, I wrote that I hope liberals really enjoyed running Brendan Eich out of his job and closing down the Sweet Cakes bakery, because it cost them the Supreme Court. I’ll add now that I hope Verrilli enjoyed putting the fear of government into the God-fearing because it cost his party the election.In short, many religious Christians of a traditionalist bent believed that liberals not only reduce their deeply held beliefs to bigotry, but want to run them out of their jobs, close down their stores and undermine their institutions. When I first posted about this on Facebook, I wrote that I hope liberals really enjoyed running Brendan Eich out of his job and closing down the Sweet Cakes bakery, because it cost them the Supreme Court. I’ll add now that I hope Verrilli enjoyed putting the fear of government into the God-fearing because it cost his party the election.

I said the very same thing in my endorsement of Donald Trump before the GOP convention.(emphasis mine)

I know that there will be times that Donald Trump will disappointment me just as I expected Mitt Romney to disappoint me on social issues and John McCain to disappoint me on immigration and George W Bush who disappointed me on spending and the bank bailouts.

But while Trump will occasionally disappoint me (when he does I’ll call him on it) I am convinced he will neither persecute me nor strip me of my rights for holding my Conservative Catholic beliefs and acting on them.

I am very sorry to say I can not make that same statement about Hillary Clinton, and I’m even sorrier to see the day when I would say this about a presidential candidate.

This I believe is the real reason why so many of us couldn’t get the #nevertrump people,particularly religious ones. A Hillary Clinton win would have meant persecution on a grand scale. Donald Trump’s Election has prevented this.

Trump transition team members had to sign a code of ethics with a pretty significant lobbying ban, but they’ve also had to sign a non-disclosure agreement to make certain they keep all of their work confidential, according to a copy obtained by POLITICO.

The agreement legally bars transition staffers from disclosing info about major portions of the transition work, like policy briefings, personnel material, donor info, fundraising goals, budgets, contracts, or any draft research papers. It also demands that if anyone on the team suspects a colleague of leaking material, he or she must tell transition team leadership. And it gives the Trump team grounds to tell those who run afoul of the rules: “You’re fired.”

That’s usually the case when you don’t honor an NDA: you lose your job.

Politico asserts,

This practice of using a non-disclosure agreement dates back to the Trump campaign and even his businesses.

Well, heavens to Betsy!

Politico’s staff and writers may not be familiar with NDAs, but they are common practice in the private sector, and have been for years. There are jobs where I had to sign an NDA in order to apply, due to the sensitive nature of the job. To this day I still abide by those NDAs.

Politico’s unnamed “good government experts” bemoan

the way Trump’s prolific use of non-disclosure agreements in business and the campaign could hurt government transparency if the pattern continued. the way Trump’s prolific use of non-disclosure agreements in business and the campaign could hurt government transparency if the pattern continued.

even while they admit that (emphasis added),

the Trump transition’s application page indicates: “One should assume that all of the information provided during this process is ultimately subject to public disclosure, if requested under the Freedom of Information Act.”

No NDA is going to protect you from FOIA. No NDA places you above the law, either. You don’t need to have a law degree to know that.

However, it makes you wonder if Politico and their “good government experts” are displeased that they can not easily place one of their employees in Trump’s transition team.

The guys at Jezebel (look them up, I’m not linking) are frazzled and say “this is not what a democracy looks like. This is something far worse.”

Like this:

I’ve been thinking what this blog really needs is a weekly cartoon feature.

The idea being a cartoon (either directly commissioned) or at the cartoonist’s whim with my approval to do a once a week cartoon maybe on Friday’s maybe on Monday’s. The idea would be to pay it as a writer with the option of allowing the cartoonist to offer signed copies of said cartoon to readers for a fee to augment the meager pay I can afford to offer.

If you are a person who is looking to break into political cartooning and am looking for a place to start give me a shout and let’s see if this is a good fit. magnificent

San Francisco city officials to ask Kate Steinle’s family to dismiss lawsuit

And the first paragraph tells us that they aren’t alone.

The U.S. government and the City of San Francisco are asking Kate Steinle’s family to dismiss the wrongful death lawsuit in a hearing on Friday.

There is one obvious question that comes to mind here, why?

Why on earth would the Steinle family consider even for a moment dropping their lawsuit when the actions of these entities were directly responsible for their daughter’s murder?

Why would they consider for a second letting these people off the hook when they know that only if there are consequences for their actions will things change.

Now I understand why the government would ask, after all they don’t want to be in court filing the motion to dismiss, that will look worse than this request does, but given the situation I can’t fathom why they would think for a second that this family will bail them out when in a few short months they will have an ally in the White House?

Now you might be wondering why the City of San Francisco and the federal government aren’t rushing to do their best Jim Carey impersonation

and get this behind them. The answer is they dare not for two reasons.

If they settle that is a tact admission that there is something wrong will allowing illegal aliens to be sheltered by the city with penalty from the federal government, and our friends on the left dare not risk angering their base by advancing that meme.

There are plenty of victims of crimes by illegal aliens, if they settle this case, then you will see a plethora of such cases nationwide and maybe even a class action by those who suffered financial losses as opposed to death or injury. Such cases will destroy the political viability of the defense of sanctuary cities and campuses.

So the best the government can do is beg the family to let them off the hook in the hope they are foolish enough to do so.

Pathetic.

Closing thought, I wonder what kind of pressure, if any, is being put on the family to play along?

The media loves to dismiss Donald Trump as a showman–as if there was no showmanship with Barack Obama–but those under 45 first encountered our next president as a real estate developer, albeit a flashy one. Developers are many things, including, yes, deal makers, as well as a negotiators. In regards to that last one, when you are sitting across someone you are negotiating with, or as it usually turns out, haggling with, a strategy that has worked since the Babylonian era is to get the person sitting on the other side of the table from you off of his script and on to yours. One tactic is known as “getting-yourself-inside-their-heads.”

And that’s something that Trump may have accomplished by accepting a telephone call last week from the president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, which has caused a kerfuffle. Because the United States recognizes communist China as the legitimate government off all of China, including Taiwan, a president hasn’t spoken to a Taiwanese leader since 1979. Of course we still have extensive trade relations with the island nation–oops, breakaway province–and we still sell Taiwan weapons. If they are ever fired in defense it would very likely be against the Chicomms.

Oh, Taiwan and China are major trading partners.

Trying to understand international relations is a descent into madness.

Trump made the re-negotiation of what he calls bad trade deals a central campaign promise. Of course those bad deals with China, if they really are awful, are good ones for the Chinese. If Hillary Clinton won last month’s presidential election China could look forward to at least four more years of crony socialism from the former secretary of state. Since then China has been bracing itself for a return to the bargaining table, preparing for difficult deal making with this New York capitalist.

Update (DTG): I’d like to take credit for the piece that John is referring to but that one was written by RH (NG36B) one of the newest additions to our magnificent 7 writers. I’m delighted to have both John & RH on the team

The Dems thought that the 2016 presidential campaign was supposed to go like this:
The Republican candidate, civil, polite, meekly plays by the rules (i.e., plays the Dems’ game), is easily thrown off his (the Dems didn’t for a moment think Carly would win the primary) game. Just as it happened in 2008 and 2012.
Versus,
Hillary, unopposed, who landslides to a win, and is crowned.

When it became clear that, as Bill Whittle predicted four years ago, the winner of the primaries was someone from the popular culture, not from politics, the Dems – and several from the RNC – were miffed that Donald Trump was not playing by their rules.

Trump forged right ahead, tweeting right along, flying in his own plane, bringing aid to Louisiana flood victims, and looking mighty presidential at a press conference abroad, where he managed to make the president of Mexico like an amateur.

Oh-oh.

The Dems and several from the RNC, fully expected that Trump, an “overnight media sensation” at least when it came to politics, would, like Andy Griffith’s character Lonesome Rhodes in A Face in the Crowd (1957), have a cataclysmic public meltdown which would lose him the election.

The Dems expected it because they, as our self-appointed “betters” thought the people could not fail to admire Hillary. The Reps wanted Hillary to win as a weak candidate to be overwhelmed by a Republican-majority Congress (as if!).

What neither side recognized that the people were mad as hell and weren’t going to take it anymore, the sentiment yelled to the winds by Peter Finch’s Howard Beale in Network (1976).

Imagine the anger of an unemployed factory worker watching this,

Or the anger of a person being thrown into a basket of irredeemable deplorables, theological connotations and all.

The people weren’t going to take it anymore, and they voted.

Mind you, Trump is no Howard Beale. Trump has at least four decades of experience at three things:
1. Being in the public eye.
2. Playing his own game.
3. Getting things done.

Now that it’s clear Trump not playing by the Dems’ rules, the Dems are leaning back on their ad hominem ways,

Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager, fumed: “Do you think I ran a campaign where white supremacists had a platform?”

“You did, Kellyanne. You did,” interjected Palmieri, who choked up at various points of the session.

“Do you think you could have just had a decent message for white, working-class voters?” Conway asked. “How about, it’s Hillary Clinton, she doesn’t connect with people? How about, they have nothing in common with her? How about, she doesn’t have an economic message?”

From Wednesday, Mr. Castro’s ashes will be slowly taken east, tracing in reverse the route he and his bearded guerrillas took in late 1958 as they closed in on Havana and the seizure of power. On Sunday, his remains will be laid to rest in Santiago de Cuba, where Mr. Castro’s revolution began.

The inhabitants of the hell below are now compelled to show carefully orchestrated displays of public sorrow.

Castro’s ashes are at Granma Room of the Armed Forces Ministry building, where the public is not allowed. Instead, the crowds are directed to the José Martí Memorial, where they are to pay their respects to a portrait of Castro and a display of medals that may or may not have been his. (link in Spanish)

The Communist regime issued guidelines for the official mourning period:
1. Cubans are forbidden from saying “Good morning” (“Buenos días”) to each other.
2. No alcohol is allowed.
3. Nightlife, the lifeblood of tourism, is shut down.
4. No loud music.
5. The neighborhood watchmen, Comités de la Revolución, are keeping track of any violations to the above rules. They also keep track who shows up (or doesn’t) to sign the book of condolences at the 1,000 designated locations across the island prison after standing in line for hours under the hot sun.
6. Mourners are also compelled to sign a statement of commitment to the Revolución.

Not being allowed to display the most basic civility – “good morning” – to your fellow man is emblematic of Communism’s goal: crushing the human spirit.

Like this:

Look at any listing for a modern house. I’m willing to bet that two things are present:

An open floor plan, meaning that on the base level, one room opens into another.

Almost all listings will have multiple pictures of the kitchen and almost no pictures of the garage.

That’s a nice kitchen…but what about the smoking room?

The modern home listing is, frankly, very sexist.

Think about it. In almost every family I’ve seen, while both husband and wife cook, the wife organizes and runs the kitchen. If you don’t believe that, try (as a man) to reorganize your kitchen. Most women will have a serious issue with that. I know my wife did when I tried to clean up numerous drawers in our kitchen recently.

The open floor plan is terribly detrimental to men. For most men, if they get overwhelmed, they have to withdraw to a private space to gather their thoughts and de-stress. Try doing that in an open floor plan. Essentially, I’d have to lock myself in my bedroom, which I (like most) share with my wife.

Complicate this with the desire by many women to kick men’s hobbies out of the home and into the most undesirable rooms like the garage and basement. I see most guys hanging out in the garage because that is the only place they can store their hobby. Personally, I think garages are unheated storage for cars, not your quiet space.

Although if your garage looked like this and had an easy chair, it might not be so bad

The average guy today is probably told by his father that his house is his castle. He also probably doesn’t feel like that, at least in today’s world.

Layer on top of this:

That more men come from families broken by divorce, or in many cases a cohabitating couple that later splits, and lacks a good male role model

That all-male or predominantly-male institutions, including our veteran’s groups and church groups, are increasingly in decline

That our stagnant economy makes it hard to get a job, which is a critical expectation of men

and we shouldn’t be surprised that young men still commit suicide more often than women and have a lower life expectancy.

We’ve setup a system that doesn’t inspire creation of good family men. It’s caused more than a few to go on strike, and single, angry, unemployed men don’t work well for any government (just ask Tunisia). The anger may have contributed to many men switching their votes to Trump this last election. It’s my hope that as the dust settles, we as a society take a serious look at what expectations we place on our young men.

This post is the work of the author and does not represent any other organization’s views. And yes, rearranging things in your kitchen is a good way to stir up marital strife, so proceed with caution!

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The operations of Edgewood College were brought to a swift halt by a sticky note making fun of students traumatized by the election of Donald Trump.

The sticky note — which read, “Suck it up p–—s!” followed by a winking smiley face — coincided with a campaign to encourage students to express their feelings about the election by posting the 3-by-3-inch adhesive placards on a table in a common area.The operations of Edgewood College were brought to a swift halt by a sticky note making fun of students traumatized by the election of Donald Trump. The sticky note — which read, “Suck it up p–—s!” followed by a winking smiley face — coincided with a campaign to encourage students to express their feelings about the election by posting the 3-by-3-inch adhesive placards on a table in a common area.

According to the letter, the Post-it caused “[a] great deal of fear, sadness, and anger among students, faculty, and staff,” was “a targeted act of intimidation and cowardice,”According to the letter, the Post-it caused “[a] great deal of fear, sadness, and anger among students, faculty, and staff,” was “a targeted act of intimidation and cowardice,”

Maybe it’s just me but if you’re part of the faculty and staff of a college and you are intimidated by a post it not with a winking smiley face you have no business being in any position of authority or responsibility.

According to Chambers, “the group determined that the message constituted a Hate Crime, based on guidelines from the Jeanne Clery Act and state law.”

He adds the group acted according to college policy and reported the incident to the Madison, Wisconsin Police Department, which is currently investigating it as a “Hate Crime,” and that it is also being investigated through the college’s Student Conduct Process.According to Chambers, “the group determined that the message constituted a Hate Crime, based on guidelines from the Jeanne Clery Act and state law.” He adds the group acted according to college policy and reported the incident to the Madison, Wisconsin Police Department, which is currently investigating it as a “Hate Crime,” and that it is also being investigated through the college’s Student Conduct Process.

Seriously, you called the cops over a post it note? Seriously?!?

Now the problem reaction to all of this is of course uncontrollable laughter

Unless of course you are

A parent who is paying $40K plus annually for a school to teach them to be unprepared to deal with a post it note

A student at a job interview who has to convince a hiring manager that your Edgewood education qualifies you for a position.

A member of the alumni who has wondered what they’ve been spending the check you’ve sent them on

A Madison taxpayer who realizes their police are investigating post-it notes instead of dealing with actual crime.

No hiring manager in his or her right mind would even consider hiring a person who has spent four years in an environment where people are trained to call the police over a post it note.

My suggestion for parents of Edgewood college students. If you want your son or daughter to learn how to function in the real world get them out of Edgewood and have them take a job at McDonalds.

Sooner or later lawyers will figure out that colleges like this which fail to prepare students for life are class action suits waiting to happen, then the facades will start falling rapidly.

Closing thought. The unwillingness of the university to comment other than to acknowledge the letter as real tells me that these folks know that what they are doing is idiocy but as long as they work and dwell inside the bubble they are too afraid to say so. How pathetic is that?

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I had no idea who Colin Kaepernick is until quite recently. It turns out he’s the 49rs quarterback guy who started kneeling on one knee at the national anthem, a sign of protest that I, former Catholic schoolgirl, find incongruously reverential,

Genuflection (or genuflexion), bending at least one knee to the ground, was from early times a gesture of deep respect for a superior. Genuflection (or genuflexion), bending at least one knee to the ground, was from early times a gesture of deep respect for a superior.

So much for that.

The quarterback apparently also {hearts} Fidel, unhesitantly repeating an old Castro propaganda point,

“One thing that Fidel Castro did do is they have the highest literacy rate because they invest more in their education system than they do in their prison system, which we do not do here, even though we’re fully capable of doing that.”“One thing that Fidel Castro did do is they have the highest literacy rate because they invest more in their education system than they do in their prison system, which we do not do here, even though we’re fully capable of doing that.”

repeated incessantly that under him, Cubans are “the most cultured people in the world,” even the prostitutes, while redoing the excellent, definitive Don Quijote de la Mancha 4th Centenary edition by the Real Academia Española. Fidel had Hugo Chavez abridge it, remove the essay “Una novela para el siglo XXI” by long-time foe Mario Vargas Llosa, and replaced that essay with a short preface by José Saramago, a much friendlier Communist. The Communist regime can’t have “the most cultured people in the world” exposed to an essay which essence is that Don Quijote’s a free men’s novel.repeated incessantly that under him, Cubans are “the most cultured people in the world,” even the prostitutes, while redoing the excellent, definitive Don Quijote de la Mancha 4th Centenary edition by the Real Academia Española. Fidel had Hugo Chavez abridge it, remove the essay “Una novela para el siglo XXI” by long-time foe Mario Vargas Llosa, and replaced that essay with a short preface by José Saramago, a much friendlier Communist. The Communist regime can’t have “the most cultured people in the world” exposed to an essay which essence is that Don Quijote’s a free men’s novel.

Look, we all know about celebrity displays of ignorance and stupidity, to the point that by now it’s rather apparent that ignorance and stupidity are job requirements to celebrity status.

Fires have broken out from the north to the south in the last two days. The Israel Police is saying that “a wave of arson has befallen Israel” after 220 fires were reported during these past few days. The Israel Police has not ruled out arson as the cause of many of these fires. Fires have broken out from the north to the south in the last two days. The Israel Police is saying that “a wave of arson has befallen Israel” after 220 fires were reported during these past few days. The Israel Police has not ruled out arson as the cause of many of these fires.

The fires that have burned across Israel since Tuesday raged on Thursday with new areas threatened by flames as other blazes have come under control. Fifty percent of these fires were caused by repeated arson, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told Army Radio Thursday morning.

Also on Army Radio, Shimon Ben Ner, a senior Haifa firefighter, said “I know for a fact that they tried to set fire to the department’s station in Haifa deliberately to cause the Haifa fire department to be paralyzed.”

It will be interesting to see if Twitter that was so ready to Ban Stacy McCain and Milo will be in any hurry to ban folks celebrating the burning of Israel in arabic or english.

I’m wondering what potential DNC chief Keith Ellison will say about this? I’m sure he’ll get around to banning it just before he signs onto the bill to stop the arab “Pay to slay” business (via elder of ziyon)

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Its share price is down 20% since the start of the year. The stock briefly surged in early fall on feverish speculation that a big company like Disney (DIS), Google (GOOGL, Tech30) or Salesforce(CRM, Tech30) might make a bid for it. But no potential acquirer came forward.Twitter has had a rough time in 2016. Its share price is down 20% since the start of the year. The stock briefly surged in early fall on feverish speculation that a big company like Disney (DIS), Google (GOOGL, Tech30) or Salesforce (CRM, Tech30) might make a bid for it. But no potential acquirer came forward.

The leftist group MoveOn got its start as Bill Clinton was being impeached. Their initial message was along the lines of, Bubba has done a great job running the country, his affair with Monica Lewinsky was inappropriate, and now it’s time for Americans to, well, move on.

Now if only the cheerleaders in the media for the Democratic Party could do the same.

There’s a book’s worth of material out there for this post, but I’ll zoom in on just a few today. Dahleen Glanton, an African American Chicago Tribune columnist, puts the blame on the Democrats failure to keep the White House on where she feels it belongs. Yes, the headline gives the ending away, “White women, own up to it: You’re the reason Hillary Clinton lost.” Yet the first sentence of that column betrays how foolish she is, “I don’t understand women.” Her dazzling display of ignorance continues for another two dozen paragraphs.

There must be vile fumes from the Chicago River poisoning the minds of Chicago newspaper columnists, as ignorance begets insanity. I had to read Neil Steinberg’s Nazi-drenched column about Donald Trump and his advisor Steven Bannon, who, by the way, is not an anti-Semite, three times before I gave up trying to make sense of it. Well, almost. When I am confronted with Nazis and insanity I do one thing and that is listen to avante-garde rockers the Residents’ masterpiece, “The Third Reich and Roll,” only this time I did so while trying to block out of my memory all of my knowledge of the 1960s garage pop classics that are satirized in this work, as a possible gateway into Steinberg’s rambling mess. That didn’t work either. But hey, I tried.

At the end of his column he all but claims that it will be followers of a religion who have been scapegoated for centuries who will be blamed if Trump’s economy doesn’t take off as he promises it will.

Perhaps what these mainstream media hacks really need is a good cry, which is something the Residents have done as they confide in “Hitler Was a Vegetarian.”

Yes, it’s your party, I know it’s your party
And, you know that you can cry, and, it’s cool
But you have to remember that I too cried my 96 tears
And… it’s just something we all have to go through some time or another.

I have greatly enjoyed over the years Andrew Klavan’s columns and videos, first at PJMedia and now at the Daily Wire. He podcasts Monday-through-Thursday at the Daily Wire, leaving us with “Klavanless weekends,” as he calls them.

Klavan is witty, smart, quick and funny, and great to listen to. I knew he also wrote books, but never got around to reading one.

Edgar Award-winner and internationally bestselling novelist tells of his improbable conversion from agnostic Jewish-intellectual to baptized Christian and of the books that led him there.

“Had I stumbled on the hallelujah truth, or just gone mad—or, that is, had I gone mad again?”

No one was more surprised than Andrew Klavan when, at the age of fifty, he found himself about to be baptized. Best known for his hard-boiled, white-knuckle thrillers and for the movies made from them—among them True Crime (directed by Clint Eastwood) and Don’t Say a Word (starring Michael Douglas)—Klavan was born in a suburban Jewish enclave outside New York City. He left the faith of his childhood behind to live most of his life as an agnostic in the secular, sophisticated atmosphere of New York, London, and Los Angeles. But his lifelong quest for truth—in his life and in his work—was leading him to a place he never expected.Edgar Award-winner and internationally bestselling novelist tells of his improbable conversion from agnostic Jewish-intellectual to baptized Christian and of the books that led him there. “Had I stumbled on the hallelujah truth, or just gone mad—or, that is, had I gone mad again?” No one was more surprised than Andrew Klavan when, at the age of fifty, he found himself about to be baptized. Best known for his hard-boiled, white-knuckle thrillers and for the movies made from them—among them True Crime (directed by Clint Eastwood) and Don’t Say a Word (starring Michael Douglas)—Klavan was born in a suburban Jewish enclave outside New York City. He left the faith of his childhood behind to live most of his life as an agnostic in the secular, sophisticated atmosphere of New York, London, and Los Angeles. But his lifelong quest for truth—in his life and in his work—was leading him to a place he never expected.

That’s well and good, and interesting, of course, but what it doesn’t tell you is how good a writer Klavan is. Compulsive readers like myself come across dozens of blurbs about well-known good authors every day, only to be disappointed when we pick up the latest book from a writer we have enjoyed before, or a writer who is new to us but highly touted.

This is one of the best written books I have read in years.

The second chapter, Addicted to Dreams, especially stands out. It is insightful, stirring, and every sentence is perfect, conveying a time and a state of mind from the past while making both immediate and present. It achieves that effect as beautifully as John Galsworthy’s masterful Indian Summer of a Forsyte. (The highest praise I can make, since I have re-read the entire Forsyte Saga once every ten years for the last four decades.)

This is one of the few books, out of the thousands I have read in my entire life, that I recommend for the quality of the writing. The fact that his writing evolved along with the spiritual journey makes the book even more fascinating.

A few years ago David Eggers’s immodestly-titled A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius came out, and yes, it is a fine book. But Klavan’s Great Good Thing is not only great and good, it is heartbreaking, and truly a work of staggering genius.

Read it, and your weekend will not be Klavanless.

Fausta Rodriguez Wertz writes on U.S. and Latin American politics, news, and culture at Fausta’s Blog.

The same media which said nothing against Obamacare being pushed through without the Republicans, the same media who doesn’t report who Obama is playing golf with, the same media that has kept silent for years on the Clinton Crime Family™ . . . I can go on and on, but I simply can’t stop laughing.

Fausta Rodriguez Wertz writes on U.S. and Latin American politics, news, and culture at Fausta’s Blog.

There are thousands–maybe hundreds of thousands–of explanations about why Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton last week that you can find online and in print, as well as why the Republicans maintained control of Congress and gained governorships.

Here’s another one, although this discussion confronts one angle, what I call “inevitable leftism.” Barack Obama was the “Hope and Change” candidate for president in 2008; four years later, “Forward” was his rallying cry. Some conservative pundits noticed that “Forward” has a long history as a communist and socialist slogan.

Leftists, Obama is one, firmly believe that their cause is one of inevitable success, that humanity is headed towards–choose your term–a collectivist, socialist, or communist utopia. They view popular leaders such as Margaret Thatcher or Ronald Reagan, as atavistic aberrations, mere potholes that can be paved over when the time is right, sooner, as opposed to later.

Except when they are wrong.

The French Revolution, still idealized by the Left, deposed a king and disestablished the Roman Catholic church, and replaced the Ancien Régime with an atheist republic that executed thousands, which was quickly transformed into a dictatorship led by an Italian. Along the way the days and months were renamed in a new decimal calendar–hours and minutes were divided by ten too, as were weights and measures. A couple of decades later there was a king again in France, the Catholic church was the state religion–but the metric system survived, yet strangely enough, it still hasn’t completely caught on in the United States.

Maximilien Robespierre, the guiding force of the French Revolution, and his inner circle were certain they were guiding the world on the right path. He may have even held on to that belief as he walked up to the guillotine, two years after Louis XVI after made the same, final stroll.

The Russian Revolution’s state, the Soviet Union, was similarly hailed by the Left as a societal inevitably, it also led to regicide, and tens of millions were killed. Because the USSR survived much longer than the French Republic, it succeeded in shattering Russian culture. But the surviving Russian nation is a South American-style sham democracy run by a thug, not a nation consisting of a populace that lives “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”

Barack Obama is not a psychopath or a murderer. But he’s a leftist, albeit one along the lines of French President François Hollande. Obama decided that America needs government-run health care in 2009 but he knew that what the Democrats euphemistically call single-payer would be unpopular, so a hybrid program, quickly dubbed ObamaCare, was developed as a bridge to that health care utopia. ObamaCare is deeply unpopular, and it was one reason for Trump’s win. The president-elect says he will repeal most of ObamaCare. The Democrats’ push for gay marriage is another page from the book of Dem inevitability, but only 21 nations allow same-sex marriages, none of them are in Asia, and South Africa is the only country in Africa that allows it.

It was the Democrats who, through their many friends in the judiciary, that created the so-called crisis surrounding the minuscule segment of the population who feel compelled to use the washrooms and the locker rooms–even in high school–of the opposite gender. They view choose-your-own-bathroom as their next social inevitability. The Democrats are the party of the confused horny teenage boy who wants to shower with girls.

Next year France will hold a presidential election. Marine Le Pen, a far-right politician with a fierce anti-immigrant stance, whose election as president last year ago seemed as likely as Trump moving in to the White House was, is confident of her chances. Hollande hasn’t declared himself as a candidate. Is Le Pen, another atavistic aberration, the inevitability of France?

France is ten percent Muslim. With the higher birth rates of its Muslim citizens a majority Muslim France could be possible by the end of the century. Gay marriage has been legal in France since 2013. Will it be in 2113?

John “Lee” Ruberry of the Magnificent Seven

The policy of open borders is also viewed as the next level of human achievement by the Left. It has worked well for the European Union, but there’s a big difference between thousands Germans buying homes in Italy and thousands of Middle Eastern migrants arriving in ramshackle boats there. Democrats, and even some Republicans, have been ignoring calls from ordinary citizens, now dubbed “the Forgotten Man,” to secure the southern border for decades. Opposition to open borders was the main reason why British voters voted to leave the EU.

Of course no one can predict the future. Not even leftists, even though they never tire in telling you how smart they are.

In the United States the hubris of inevitability led to the defeat of the Left last week.

Yesterday we discovered that while the NYT is all in favor of amnesty for those who enter places illegally they apparently draw the line if they are illegally present where they don’t want them.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof fought with and restrained an intruder he found in his Philadelphia hotel room.

In fact not content to eject the illegal occupier he turn said illegal resident into law enforcement.

A police spokesman confirmed the account, saying the columnist “chased him, struggled with him and held him until officers arrived.” The suspect is in custody awaiting charges.

This seems odd to me, Philadelphia is a Sanctuary City therefore if a person is illegally present somewhere the proper thing to do, particularly if you are a member of the NYT is, regardless of the law, to recognize said persons right to be where they are. Any other action is clearly racist.

Thus the police should have informed Mr. Kristof that no person is illegal and that his attempts to punish that person for being someplace illegally, rather than insisting he get amnesty for his crime, smacked of white privilege no matter what the law says.

That they did not leads one to suspect that the for members of the left, the tolerance for the ignoring of the law ends when their inconvenience or danger begins

Unexpectedly

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Like this:

We’re getting a new President, and given Secretary Mabus’ long tour, I’m guessing we’ll get a new Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV). The next SECNAV will have to tackle a lot of issues. If you want to score popularity points with the military, there are five issues that would be quite popular with our Sailors:

It’s funny because we can’t say “Corpsman” anymore, because we got rid of rating titles AND the word “man”

Rollback the rating disestablishment. I don’t think you could find a more despised and needless action then the disestablishment of Navy Enlisted Ratings. If President Trump wants to score easy points with Sailors, simply restore Sailor’s ratings. It would be cheaper in the long run (no more studies and training on whatever the new system would be) and certainly less confusing than whatever we would come up with.

Put a 5 year limit on uniform changes. It seems every other year we are getting a mandated uniform change. All changes require enlisted Sailors to get extra uniform money to spend on uniforms, which seems like a good deal for uniform suppliers, but a terrible deal for the Navy’s budget. Limit us to only one new uniform every 5 years, so we can stop wasting money designing flammable, non-camouflage pajamas.

It’s not my building…we at least maintain the lawn

Fix the Military Construction (MILCON) process. We spent so much money on LCS and the F-35 that we had to rob someone’s piggy bank, so we chose building funds. If you think that is my opinion, try reading the 2016 budget (emphasis is mine):

The Department has been challenged to meet Combatant Commander demand for forces, and associated higher-than-planned operational tempo, while dealing with the reality of reduced resources in the Budget Control Act. Surgeable forces have decreased due to increased maintenance on aging platforms, a reduction in aircraft and weapons procurement, and risks taken against support infrastructure. This budget continues to put a priority on readiness while maintaining the minimum investment necessary to maintain an advantage in advanced technologies and weapons systems. While we have accepted some risk in weapons capacity and delayed certain modernization programs, this budget provides us with a plan to keep the Navy and Marine Corps as a ready, balanced force.

Our Navy facilities are in poor shape in many places. Unless you have a 3 or 4 star admiral, you are likely in a dilapidated building that should have been torn down 5 years ago. My building, for example, was built in 1942, has scaffolding holding up the foundation in the basement, has flooding and cockroach problems (no matter how many times we poison them), struggles to maintain temperature…and it’s one of the nicer buildings on our waterfront. It, along with many others, needs some new construction fast, something that our incoming President should be familiar with.

Review more combat awards, and cut down on other awards. The guy in the above picture is Eugene Fluckey. He was a WW2 badass submariner. He got 4 Navy Crosses and the Medal of Honor for doing daring stuff, including putting his own Sailors ashore on Japan to blow up a train. He has 4 rows of medals. Nowadays, I see people who have done nothing close to that walking around with 6 rows of medals. The sad part is that we hand out more medals for simply showing up to work, but we’re so stingy with combat awards, despite being at war for over a decade.

This was the nicest F35 meme I could find…

Fix our broken acquisition process. If you want a new weapons system, the best way to guarantee success is to ensure the parts are made in as many states as possible. That will make killing the program in Congress nearly impossible. Never mind if the weapon isn’t doing the job, or over budget, or eclipsed by technology. Making our procurement processes buy gear and not be a source of Congressional graft would go a long way.

At least you got some weight loss!

Actually fire someone in the VA.Seriously. Nobody has lost a job, except for the guy on top (and really, he resigned). A President Trump that goes hospital by hospital firing poor performing employees would get cheered by all sides. What a perfect image: “You’re fired” from a President who made that his punch line for quite some time.

This post represents the views of the author alone and does not represent views of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy or any other government agency. And no, I wasn’t making the cockroach part up.

Spock:I fail to comprehend your indignation, sir. I have simply made the logical deduction that you are a liar.

Star Trek: The Alternative Factor 1967

One of the things that we are hearing constantly from our friends on the left, even as we see images of leftists rioting and destroying over the election of Trump, is that muslims, blacks and latinos are being victimized by hate crimes by Trump supporters since the election. We’ve heard both Van Jones and Mr. Kahn on CNN (who has become the new Cindy Sheehan absolute moral authority voice of the left) about such things going on and I’ve heard said reports on CBS radio as well.

But you know what I haven’t heard or seen? Any audio or video of such events.

We live in an internet age, where smartphones are had by practically everyone, college students, factory workers, etc etc etc. The ability to record, either on audio or video a person threatening you is the push of a button away as is the ability upload such audio or video.

Yet for all of the talk of this going on we don’t see any of the actual evidence, nor a line of people going to police and filing charges. Actually that’s not true we did see one young lady making that claim to police in Louisiana but…

A Louisiana college student has acknowledged she fabricated a report that she was assaulted and robbed of her wallet and Muslim headscarf by two men, one of whom she described as wearing a white “Trump” hat, police said Thursday.

The Lafayette Police Department said in a statement that it is no longer investigating the 18-year-old woman’s claims, which were made within hours of Donald Trump’s presidential victory.

Police said the student told investigators she was walking near the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s campus Wednesday morning when she was accosted by two white men who drove up in a gray sedan. Police added the student had claimed the men shouted racial obscenities as they knocked her down and stole her wallet and the headscarf, known as a hijab.

Charlie Bier, a spokesman for the university, said a federal privacy law prohibits him from saying whether the student could be disciplined.

On the other had we have no shortage of video of Trump supporters being beaten to wit:

So to all of those claiming a hate crime wave, I challenge you to show me some video and audio, and I further challenge you to file a police report and file charges and let’s find out if there is some there there. After all is it credible that there is absolutely no video of this if it is so common?

If this is actually happening such people doing these things, like those attacking trump supporters should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

If this is NOT happening and people are perpetuating hoaxes for the sake of political advantage then they too should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

But until I see the video, or the police reports, signed under pains of perjury you’ll forgive me for assuming that you are lying through your teeth.

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Imagine being a ten year old child during the London blitz. On the first night your house is being bombed by the Luftwaffe, you and your parents rush to the Underground, where you sit in the dark for hours. Tense as the situation is, it gets worse when the exit is blocked by debris from the bombing and you and hundreds of others must wait, not only for the bombing raid to end, but to be dug out.

I did not invent the London blitz scenario. A friend (now deceased) lived through it. Aside from a reluctance to being in dark enclosed spaces (such as movie theaters or red eye flights), she lived a long, happy and successful life. She firmly believed that resilience can be learned, just as she had.

Loehr’s thesis is that you can develop everyday habits that will help you cope with life’s stresses. His approach includes physical activity, mental focusing, and developing healthy personal habits (such as healthy eating and avoiding smoking, drugs, etc.). Once these habits are ingrained, they become valuable tools through which you will overcome life’s travails.

Physical activity, mental focusing, and developing healthy personal habits are exactly the tools my friend and her family in wartime London relied on; in their case they also relied on their Faith as part of their focus.

Why is this approach important?

From his more than 30 years of experience and applied research, Dr. Loehr believes the single most important factor in successful achievement, personal fulfillment and life satisfaction is the strength of one’s character. He strongly contends that character strength can be built in the same way that muscle strength is built through energy investment.

Rather than counseling, vigils, safe spaces and coloring books, I recommend that colleges across the nation hand out copies of this book and make it required reading. Add that to Pete’s approach and you might get your students to become realized persons.

Fausta Rodriguez Wertz writes on U.S. and Latin American politics, news, and culture at Fausta’s Blog.

73 years ago American men (and a limited amount of women) your age including my father were deployed all over the world stopping actual Nazi’s and facists. They risked and or gave their lives to this endeavor.

And today, you, who rank in the top 1% of privilege in the world able to attend universities at a cost higher than the annual avg income of most humans who have ever lived. Are marching in the streets because you lost an election?

Seriously?

Those people who came home from the war most of whom never went to college (some of who like my father never went to high school) ended up making America the most prosperous country that has ever existed in history.

And apparently rather than using this give to learn and grow, you have done so to so enable your own narcissism to the point where any action you disapprove of is cause for a public temper tantrum.

What a waste.

Who knew that special snowflakes would melt at the slightest bit of heat?

May I make a suggestion, if you hadn’t abandoned Christianity you would be be able to be comforted by Christ and be reassured that God sees much farther than man. May I also suggest that your local Catholic Church has a priest who would be more than welcome to speak to you if you need it and can introduce to a God that hasn’t stopped loving you even if you have denied him in the past.

Exit Question: May I suggest that this display of a lack of coping skills is not going to make you attractive to employers with the possible exception of grubhub. I suggest the following video to instruct you.

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And of course at that price you get the Da Magnificent Seven plus those we hope to add on and all subscribers get my weekly podcast emailed directly to you before it goes up anywhere else.

Imagine pushing aside other priorities in your life to get the job done and your candidate to win.

Now imagine doing this for five hundred and seventy-six days.

Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy on April 12, 2015; the NYT reported,

For all the months of quiet and careful planning, however, her campaign’s rollout did not come off as smoothly as envisioned. Rather than gliding into the spotlight as an above-the-fray former secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton entered the 2016 race in the midst of lingering questions about her exclusive use of a private email address while at the State Department and about donations from foreign countries to her family’s philanthropic foundation.

Her campaign ended last night, November 8, 2016, still shrouded in scandals related to her “exclusive use of a private email address while at the State Department and about donations from foreign countries to her family’s philanthropic foundation,” to borrow from the NYT report.

April 12, 2015 to November 8, 2016: five hundred and seventy six days.

If you were a committed Hillary supporter from the start and were in Manhattan last night, at the Javitz Center, you stood for nine emotional hours waiting for Hillary. Five hundred and seventy six days and nine hours later, when it was clear she lost, and you needed her presence, this:

BREAKING: Podesta speaking before Hillary campaign audience, says that Hillary is waiting for the full vote count. Will not concede tonight.

Let us start with the Democrats. Were you to draw a Venn diagram of the three groups whose interaction defines the modern-day Democratic party – liberals, meritocrats and plutocrats – the space where they intersect would be an island seven miles off the coast of Massachusetts called Martha’s Vineyard.

I’m going to drive the point home by reminding you that John F. Kennedy Jr, who was a liberal, meritocrat, and a plutocrat, was flying to Martha’s Vineyard to attend a cousin’s wedding when the airplane he was piloting crashed into the Atlantic. The Vineyard is Barack Obama’s favorite vacation spot–he’s been there seven times while president. Martha’s Vineyard the playground of the Democrat elitists. Bill and Hillary Clinton have vacationed there several times. In August her campaign held a $100,000-per-couple fundraiser on the island, just days after a devastating flood struck Louisiana.

In those Podesta emails, I haven’t so far found any mention of blacks, unless it’s about the black vote, the group that Democrats claim to champion more than anyone. But other than voting en masse for the Democrats and celebrity campaign appearances by people like Jay-Z, African-Americans otherwise aren’t much use for the Democrats.

Blue collar workers, a section of the electoral pie that has been shrinking for decades, appear to be missing from the Podesta emails too. They are also absent from Martha’s Vineyard, from what I hear, unless they are modern George Wilsons from The Great Gatsby, dutifully repairing plutocrats’ Teslas. The working class, once the biggest chunk of the FDR coalition, is heading towards the Republican Party. Perhaps a majority of them are inside the GOP tent already. And you won’t find what Michael Moore calls “the forgotten working stiff” on any vacation, because the leftist flamethrower pointed out last month his stiff hasn’t “had a real vacation in years.”

Some blacks besides the First Family “holiday” on the Vineyard, but in a 2009 article in New York magazine, Touré dismissed them as African-Americans who are “the only ones,” such as the only black in the room, neighborhood, or workplace.

“No man is an island entire of itself,” John Donne wrote nearly 400 years ago, “every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” Unless of course you are a member of the Democrat elite. An island accessible only by boats and airplanes is a fitting hangout for them.

Which leaves “the leftover people” for the Republicans. Sure, the elitists will blame the decline in unionization of the blue collar work force as why the leftovers have fallen behind.

Maybe.

Also discovered in Podesta’s WikiLeaks cache was an email from Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who advised the Clinton campaign to choose a city outside of Washington for its headquarters because they would be better positioned to hire “low paid permanent employees.” And just what wage does Schmidt view as low paid? Is it less than the $15 minimum wage that Democrats call for?

John “Lee” Ruberry of the Magnificent Seven

Oh, if Schmidt really believes every verse in the Democratic mantra, then why isn’t Google unionized?

So, no, the Democratic Party isn’t the champion of “the little guy” anymore, just as Martha’s Vineyard isn’t a vacation destination for blacks living in Boston’s impoverished Dorchester neighborhood. Ironically it’s a billionaire from Manhattan who, at least this autumn, has made “the little guy” feel at home within the Republican Party.

John Ruberry, whose closest brush with Martha’s Vineyard has been South Boston, regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

One of the big signs that the worm as turned in this election is the panic and depression on the faces of members of the MSM. I haven’t seen anything like it since the elections of 2010 first of Scott Brown and then the big red wave. While I think the defeat of Hillary is vital for the country I think most conservatives will get much more satisfaction from their discomfort then Trump’s win, if it happens.

The thing that I think is most discouraging to the press has been trump’s unwillingness to make a vital error and (to this point anyways) to stay on message during this week. This is in stark contrast to the Hillary campaign at this point. That’s a real sign of panic and nothing is more contagious or deadly to any enterprise.

While I think the cumulative effect of the wikileaks and Project Veritas helped move the polls I think the real advantage has been to illustrate the tactics of the left so that the normal counters that the left would use to counter his news, making them completely ineffective. That being said I’m shocked that as of this writing there hasn’t been one last November Surprise coordinated by the MSM and the Clintons. I don’t think waiting till Sunday night is a good idea, if they have something to play it’s got to be now.

My wife has been on a “Hallelujah” kick lately and if you go to YouTube you will find all kinds of version of that song from Susan Boyle

To Pentatonix

to the original songwriter Leonard Cohen.

It’s a good song but the more I think about it the reason I think it has caught on so well on a gut level, is man has an instinctive thirst for God and “Hallelujah” means “praise the Lord”.

One of my pet peeves is the argument by some that Slavery was not the driving force behind the Civil war. This can be disproved by looking at any newspapers from the 1840’s to the 1860’s but thanks to Prager U I don’t have to make that argument alone:

There were other factors but they meant little compared to slavery.

I’ve never stopped arguing that the pro-abortion argument is the same as the pro-slavery argument, if you don’t like Abortion/Slavery don’t have/own one. Or I’m personally opposed to Abortion/slavery but don’t want to forbid it or can’t see how to do it. Both of those arguments are equally morally shallow.

Stacy McCain continues to write about modern feminism and it’s Marxist/Wiccan roots but in the end a philosophy that rejects the normal rules of reproduction is doomed because nothing makes a philosophy obsolete then the failure of those who espouse it to breed.

One of the real pleasant surprises this week was walking into the doors at work at 10:30 PM with the score of game 7 of the Cubs vs the Indians 6-3 and discovering that the game wasn’t over when my first break came around at 12:30 AM allowing me to listen to the last 1/2 inning that proved to be just as exciting as the rest of the game. While at least one baseball fan in my family disagrees on the greatness of the game due to some really poor decisions by the Cubs’ manager I think that the greatness of the game was not lessened by the mistakes. Baseball like all sports is entertainment and I haven’t been so entertained by a game 7 in decades.

Speaking of pleasant surprises this week’s Big Bang Theory was excellent and entertaining. You would think that after 10 years the ideas would be running thin but the quality has kept up. I think the show could run another 2 years or more easy if the cast remains willing to do it.

In two weeks the Animated version of Power of the Daleks, one of the missing Dr. Who episodes, introducing the 2nd doctor will premiere on BBC America. I’m anxious to see it but am surprised that it took nearly 30 years for the BBC to decide this is a good idea, although it is possible that they figured they didn’t want to go through the expense in case any of those episodes turned up. I suspect if the rating are good (and they will be) we will see the rest of the missing episodes done.

Like this:

The Wikileaks, the FBI investigation, the complicit politicians, the media. Many of us are paying attention to the news. Several are making The case against Hillary Clinton,

The record shows, again and again, lies, secrecy and duplicitousness deployed as means to the ends of amassing wealth and power.

Despite her well-padded resume and long proximity to power, Hillary Clinton’s illegal actions, abuse of office, secretive, undemocratic instincts and low character render her unfit to serve as President of the United States.

It is no hyperbole to say that the Clintonian corruption reaches Russian proportions,

As the New York Times reported, “As the Russians gradually assumed control of Uranium One in three separate transactions from 2009 to 2013, Canadian records show, a flow of cash made its way to the Clinton Foundation. Uranium One’s chairman used his family foundation to make four donations totaling $2.35 million. Those contributions were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons, despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly identify all donors. Other people with ties to the company made donations as well.” The seller, “Frank Giustra … a mining financier, has donated $31.3 million to the foundation…”

And, speaking of ties to Russia, Bill Clinton was paid $500,000 for a speech, part of which is thought to have come from the Russian government. Vladimir Putin showed his thanks by attending the speech.

As Peter Schweitzer, author of the expose “Clinton Cash,” noted, WikiLeaks e-mails provide proof that the “Clintons have a long and lucrative history of financial deals with the Russians, particularly with the Russian government.”

Renaissance Capital would not comment on the genesis of Mr. Clinton’s speech to an audience that included leading Russian officials, or on whether it was connected to the Rosatom deal. According to a Russian government news service, Mr. Putin personally thanked Mr. Clinton for speaking.

at last count, there were five, count ’em five, FBI investigations into the machinations of the money factory known as the Clinton Foundation

Indeed,

what is downright scary is way the Clintons have been willing to trade away legitimate environmental concerns and even our national security for the sake of filthy lucre.

No matter who wins the election, the fact remains that the culture that facilitated the Clinton’s corrupt doings will remain in place, a culture that will destroy the foundation of our country, unless we as a nation commit to fight against it.

That is the real challenge of our times.

Fausta Rodriguez Wertz writes on U.S. and Latin American politics, news, and culture at Fausta’s Blog.

In the 1988 movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Steve Martin and Michael Caine play two grifters who prey on very rich people as the corrupt local police turn a blind eye. Rumor has it that Michael Caine modeled his character Lawrence Jamieson after real-life Claus Von Bulow, who had been in legal hot water over his wife’s insulin coma.

Under Lawrence’s tutoring, Martin’s character Freddie learns how to become smoothly urbane and elegant, so he’ll be more suited for the sophisticated scams,

So it was with the Clintons. They transformed themselves from two rather unattractive characters into people who tie up traffic after getting $1,200 haircuts ($600 for cut, $600 for color) paid by the proceeds of their influence peddling.

Long gone was the Scrooge-like need to write off used underwear as charitable tax deductions or to play 4-trillion-to-one odds in rigging a $100,000 cattle-futures profit on a $1,000 “investment,” or Hillary’s decade-and-a-half as a corporate lawyer masquerading as a children’s advocate. How pathetic the minor league Whitewater cons must seem now to the multimillionaire Clintons — such a tawdry ancient example of amateurish shakedowns when compared with the sophistication of real profiteering through the humanitarian-sounding, high-brow, corrupt Clinton Foundation.

And here’s something I don’t see many people discussing: the reason that Clinton was allowed to set up a server in her home in the first place and pass classified information through it. That no one blew the whistle on that is much bigger than who we will have sitting in the Oval Office in January.

It is especially astonishing when you realize that the FBI was in charge of security.

Ed Klein’s book Guilty As Sin (which I highly recommend) describes how the cover-up took place; the book, by the way, precedes the Wikileaks releases, but the Wikileaks confirm everything Klein asserts in his book.

The day after one of the biggest October surprises in presidential politics ever, Hillary Clinton called on FBI director James Comey to release, to use the phrase in his statement to his underlings, his discovery of emails that “appear to be pertinent to our investigation.”

That investigation is centered around Clinton’s selfish and reckless decision to used a home-brewed email server while she was Barack Obama’s Secretary of State, rather than a secure government server.

Of course Clinton could have released those emails to Congress when it asked for them. Possibly within that cache could have been those emails found on the laptop shared by her longtime aide, Huma Abedin, and her estranged husband, sexting fiend Anthony Weiner. That laptop was seized by the FBI in an unrelated investigation of Carlos Danger for inappropriate online contact with an underage teen. Abedin swore under oath that she surrendered all documents with State Department emails to the FBI.

Abedin lied too.

John “Lee” Ruberry of the Magnificent Seven

So Hillary wants the FBI to immediately release, or at least before Election Day, those “pertinent emails.”

Clinton had her chance, but she chose, to use the term utilized by her protectors in the mainstream media, to yield to her “penchant for secrecy.”

Because what Hillary really has is a penchant for corruption.

The sad part of this story is that about half of American voters will still vote for Hillary Clinton–no matter what.

Yesterday I talked about how Hillary Clinton and Democrats were caught flat footed by the FBI re-opening their email investigation. but what’s been really interesting is how the line of James Comey have changed with the same GOP member praising this decision who called him corrupt a few weeks ago and Democrats who praised his integrity a few weeks ago crying “foul!”

In the last 36 hours FBI Director James Comey has been slammed by the full force of the progressive left media. I noted yesterday that, within hours of the letter being released, NY Times columnist Paul Krugman was accusing Comey of trying to swing the election for Republicans or, at a minimum, of trying to preserve their control of congress. A Democratic PAC filed a complaint with the DOJ that Comey had violated the Hatch Act by publishing the letter. A CNN legal analyst wrote today that it was time for Comey to resign…

…With all the accusations flying, I thought it was a good moment to recall a Washington Post editorial from back in July. That was when Comey announced he would not bring charges against Clinton. In an editorial titled “Republicans attack Mr. Comey for doing his job” the Post rebuked the right for for questioning Comey’s decision making:…

…A few months ago, criticizing Comey was risking damage to the rule of law. Now that it might be Hillary’s ox getting gored, bashing Comey is just fair game.

It brings to mind the Climatic Scene from Shakespeare’s the Merchant of Venice where you have Shylock saying lines such as: A Daniel come to judgment, yea, a Daniel!—O wise young judge, how I do honor thee!, O noble judge! O excellent young man! Oh wise upright judge, when granted the pound of flesh from his bond, and then, when the same judge said that you aren’t allowed any blood and if you shed any you lose your goods suddenly it was Gratiano saying: O learnèd judge!—Mark, Jew, a learnèd judge! An upright judge, a learnèd judge! A second Daniel!

So what is actually going on here? Is Comey a Clinton dupe or not? Here is what I think

I still think James Comey was as a Clinton dupe, didn’t mind playing the game and seemingly didn’t care about the blowback as long as it was about him. I think because of this when the compromised Loretta Lynch advised him against the release of this letter to congress:

Attorney General Loretta Lynch advised FBI Director James Comey against sending a letter to Congress to inform them about the reopening of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

She and team Clinton had every expectation that her advice would be followed. That’s why Clinton allies were blindsided and reacted thus:

“I’m livid, actually,” one Clinton surrogate told The Hill. “This has turned into malpractice. It’s an unforced error at this point. I have no idea what Comey is up to but the idea this email issue is popping back up again is outrageous. It never should have occurred in the first place. Someone somewhere should have told her no. And they didn’t and now we’re all paying the price.”

In an internal memo obtained by Fox News, the beleaguered director noted that the FBI typically would not communicate with the public when reopening a case, according to a Department of Justice source. But Comey said he had to in this case because Clinton is seeking the White House in an election on Nov. 8.

“Of course we don’t ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed,” Comey wrote. “I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record.

You see, when he thought the storm would only affect him and his reputation that didn’t matter, but then it produced stories like this:

THE FBI REVOLT BEGINS: A retired FBI agent says “The FBI has politicized itself, and its reputation will suffer for a long time. I hold Director Comey responsible.”

and a hundred more like it, that’s when he realized that not only was the reputation of the entire FBI compromised ,but story after story of the rank and file of the FBI bitterly resenting the tarnishing of the entire agency image over his attempt to cover for Hillary Clinton meant trouble in the ranks.

I suspect Comey didn’t anticipate this, but now he’s discovered that the FBI is not the MSM.

The ability of the chief national law enforcement arm to protect the country from things like Islamic Terror, properly enforce the laws, or even hunt fugitives is difficult if not impossible without the cooperation of law-abiding citizens. I suspect James Comey didn’t anticipate his acts would convince a good chunk of the country that the FBI was no longer a law enforcement agency but just another arm of the Democrat party and would enforce the law accordingly.

The MSM can successfully function even if half the citizenry dismiss them as corrupt tools of one political party and treat them as such. The FBI can not.

I think Comey decided that it’s one thing to cover for the Clintons it’s another when running that interference takes down your entire agency.

Update: Fixed poor sentence structure in a paragraph.

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On Tuesday, the Democratic presidential candidate paid a visit to El Gordo y La Flaca, the popular variety chat show on Spanish-language channel Univisión – and it was one of the most unrestrained appearances of her campaign. Clinton was personable, relaxed and, thanks to the nature of the show, fully committed to having some fun. During the show, Clinton danced to Marc Anthony, practiced her Spanish and was even serenaded by Bronx-born singer Prince Royce and a mariachi band for her 69th birthday, on Wednesday

After her interview with the hosts, Clinton revealed that Puerto Rican power duo Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony were joining forces, again, for a free concert in support of Clinton in Miami.

Puerto Rican Marc Anthony had already endorsed Clinton in a prior concert and he was booed, but never mind that; ‘Abuela’ Clinton panders for Latino votes on the tabloid TV show of Cubans Raúl De Molina, aka El Gordo, and Lili Estefan, aka La Flaca, as Dominican Prince Royce sang happy birthday, while she declares Mexican food her favorite.

Holy enchilada! Four countries pandered to in one show!

The South Americans must be pale with envy. Jaime Bayly, who has spent months praising Hillary in his MegaTV show, must be having the vapors.

A spokeswoman for the Estefans said the Clinton Foundation brings together businesses, governments, NGOs and individuals to improve wellness and global health, increase opportunity for women and girls, reduce childhood obesity, create economic opportunity and growth, and help communities address the effects of climate change.

both Clinton campaign chair John Podesta and Univision’s then-President of News and Fusion CEO Isaac Lee- a follow-up from prior phone conversations- and directs them to contact each other. Lee (set to deliver his infamous “Nazis” talk at UT-Austin the very next day) agrees to meet with Podesta “ASAP”, and the two ultimately agree on a breakfast meeting.

Robin of Locksley:Touch him with that [blinding iron] and you’ll get an arrow through your throat2nd Royal forester:You’re a bold fellow aren’t you?3rd Royal forester:Think you can kill all three of us?Robin of Locksley:If I have to. [throws a load of bread in the air & hits it with an arrow] Now untie him, and then leave.1st Royal forester:Well our Duty doesn’t include getting ourselves killed, you can have him, for now.

As far as I can tell, the worst thing a presidential candidate can do is turn Americans against each other. Clinton is doing that, intentionally.

Intentionally.

As I often say, I don’t know who has the best policies. I don’t know the best way to fight ISIS and I don’t know how to fix healthcare or trade deals. I don’t know which tax policies are best to lift the economy. I don’t know the best way to handle any of that stuff. (And neither do you.) But I do have a bad reaction to bullies. And I’ve reached my limit.

I hope you have too.

I learned about bullies very young thanks to my brother Dominic.

It was the 60’s at St. Anthony’s school and there was a bully who had been picking on the other kids horribly but when he decided to pick on my brother Dominic he, showing the attitude and fearlessness that he would hold for his entire life, fought rather than knuckle under.

Dominic wasn’t particularly big or strong, he was nothing special and the Bully beat him up pretty bad…

…but Dominic gave as good as he got and while he lost the fight the bully was in such bad shape that not only did he stay away from Dominic who seemed completely indifferent to pain, but didn’t pick on the other kids in school from that point on. It was the ultimate Rocky 2 moment

What did that teach me? It taught me that you have to stand up for what’s right, that the best way to stop a bully or a thief or someone looking to intimidate you is to make sure that the cost for sai bully is more than they’re willing to pay.

Yesterday I wondered aloud if conservatives are oppressed by a Hillary Clinton administration how would submitting be better than resisting? I’m very curious as to my brother Dominic’s opinion on the matter.

Incidentally Dominic never changed. From that day to his retirement last year nobody ever messed with him again, not during school, not at his job, not anywhere. He’s enjoying a quiet life with his family but even in the tough neighborhood where he lives, a neighborhood that most of the other Sicilians left long ago, nobody messes with him, the price for doing so is too high.

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Like this:

Late yesterday afternoon I was folding laundry when the phone rang. It was my brother, asking if I wanted to go with him and my sister-in-law to vote.

Unlike 1930s movie stars or reality TV people, I’m not in full make-up and heels when doing household chores, so I hesitated for a moment but said yes, and, a little red lipstick later (can’t go anywhere without red lipstick), was in their car heading to the early voting place.

My voter registration card showed an address in the opposite direction from where we were heading, but my brother had checked ahead of time. A few minutes later we were at the right place, the public library at a strip mall.

The parking lot was nearly full. The temperature was in the low eighties with low humidity and a mild breeze.

Hundreds of lawn signs for every candidate cluttered every available spot in the vicinity.

Dozens of campaign workers were handing out flyers and literature on every candidate and issue. They stayed the mandatory distance away from the entrance, all wearing their candidate’s t-shirt. Many were talking to people. I saw several Trump t-shirts, a Hillary t-shirt or two, but most were for local candidates, especially Rubio and Curbelo.

Curbelo has carpet-bombed this area with direct mail, TV and internet ads, and there were at least ten campaigners in Curbelo t-shirts yesterday evening in the parking lot.

In spite of all the lawn sign clutter, everything was very orderly.

My brother dropped us off at the entrance while he went looking for a parking spot.

Once indoors, you were directed to the waiting line and asked to have your driver’s license and your voter registration card in hand.

A few people arrived after us, including a young black couple with a beautiful baby napping on his mom’s shoulder. The husband wore a red Trump “Make America Great Again” hat and a t-shirt that read

TRUMP 2016
F**K YOUR FEELINGS

No safe space for him. A couple of people gave him a thumbs-up.

When my brother arrived my sister-in-law and I joined him at the back of the line. The lady next to me asked, “You’re not leaving, are you?”, so I explained we were just joining him instead of having him jump the line. She smiled.

Voting in Florida is very different from voting in New Jersey.

In Joisey we didn’t show ID or voter registration card; we just signed a book, were given a 2″ x 2″ piece of paper, and voted on a machine by turning levers. No paper ballot.

In Florida the information on your voter registration card and ID have to match, you are issued a 12″ printout (similar to a cash register receipt) showing your name, date of birth and address which you then must confirm, and that is placed on a clear plastic pocket on the outside of a folder. The paper ballots (2 pages printed on both sides) go in the inside of the folder, and the ballot number and voter number must in turn match the same number on the printout.

From there you are directed to the rooms with the voting booths. All the booths in the first room were occupied, so we were directed to the second room.

Once in your booth, you fill in the ballot in black ballpoint pen ink, and then head to another area with the machine. A worker explains how to enter the ballot into the machine, he removes the printout ticket, you again confirm the ballot and voter number, you feed the ballot into the slot, it enter the information electronically, you leave the empty folder in a bin, and you’re done.

The whole process – including finding a parking spot – took 20 minutes or so. There must have been a hundred people leisurely processed in that time, and it went very smoothly.

The Florida system triple-checks the voter information, the paper ballot and the electronic information. Unlike New Jersey, the weak points are outside the voting process (namely the ID and registration cards), and then you have to work at it. In all, a much superior system.

On Thursday, students hosting an upcoming talk by scholar Christina Hoff Sommers put up roughly 50 flyers promoting the event on four different campus buildings at Columbia University and Barnard College. Within 24 hours, most had been torn down.

But while these things on campus are outrageous what’s really outrageous is what we are seeing in the electorate.

We’ve seen the results of eight years of Democrat rule on the economy, an economy of fear where people are one paycheck away from disaster.

We’ve seen the results of eight years of Democrat in general and four years of Hillary Clinton rule at state, our enemies in ascendance, ourselves in retreat and our allies forced to consider nuclear options for defense as they cant count on us.

We’ve seen a government target their political enemies and excuse their friends in a way that Nixon only dreamt of.

And now with the revelations from both Wikileaks and James O’Keefe we see proof of the actual actions of both the media to protect the Clintons and Democrats, the actual opinions of Democrats and Clinton insiders concerning voters and finally on the dirty tricks and corruption from voter fraud to fomenting violence.

Yet with all of that information available, even with the media’s attempt to spin it, we see the majority of the American voting public apparently don’t care.

In my youth if a party in general or a person in particular had done with the Democrats in general and Hillary Clinton had done in particular they would have been run out of town on a rail.

But thanks to their successful culture war, aided and abetted by those who kept insisting it didn’t matter we have reached this point.

That is the most damning revelation from wikileaks and O’Keefe, that the majority of the American public doesn’t give a damn anymore and I never thought I’d see the say when that would be true.

It’s an axiom that democracies and republics always die from within, not from without. I regret to say it appears American votes seem determined to prove it.

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“Bias has always been a factor in journalism. It’s nearly impossible to remove. Humans have their thoughts, and keeping them out of your work is difficult. But 2016 saw the remaining veneer of credibility, thin as it was, stripped away and set on fire.” Derek Hunter, Townhall, October 23, 2016.

“A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad.” Albert Camus.

Both men are right.

I’ve known for many years that the mainstream media, consisting mostly of leftists, is biased, but I’ve also long suspected that these leftists have been colluding with the Democrats. Thanks to WikiLeaks we know that to be true.

The 2016 World Series, an intriguing matchup between the Chicago Cubs–of whom Hillary Clinton used to be a fan of–and the Cleveland Indians, begins Tuesday.

Which got me thinking: What if the self-righteous media guardians, umpires you might say, were in charge of baseball’s fall classic?

When the Chicago Clintons come to bat, their batters will earn a walk after three balls, Cleveland, Donald Trump’s team, will need five balls to gain a base on balls, and they’ll strike out after two strikes.

The media umpires, when the Clintons are in trouble, will take out their smartphones during the games and pass on actionable advice to their manager, who will quickly reply and request more pointers. Player after player for the Trumps will be ejected because the umpires will reveal decades-old sexual assault allegations just as the Cleveland team takes the field. Another Cleveland Trumps player will be ejected because he may not have paid federal income taxes. The umpires will claim it was only just then that they learned about about this tax issue.

Meanwhile charges that the Clintons are taking large cash payments from outsiders that could destroy the integrity of Major League Baseball are for the most part ignored–and not acted upon. And even though the umpires know that the Clintons destroyed evidence of their improprieties, they’ll deem it “old news.” The umpires will overlook the lies from the Clintons about their crimes.

When the fans in the ballpark complain, they’ll be rudely dismissed by the umpires as morons who don’t know how the contest is played.

But the truth is the public knows all too well that the game is rigged.

As Walter Cronkrite used to end his CBS Evening News broadcast, “That’s the way it is.”

Having woken up hungry just before 3 pm and finding the house empty I headed down to Happy Jacks restaurant to, after a 30 day fast from meat, reacquaint myself with the joys of their $5 after 3 pm menu.

I got there around 3:15 and the place was pretty empty, the lunch crowd was long gone and the normal Thursday dinner rush was hours away (thus the $5 menu 3-6 PM & 9-close menu). Seeing no servers handy and being alone for a change I sat myself at the bar sharing it with three woman, the bartender, who had worked there since it was the old Border restaurant at their previous location, one to my right and one across from me.

The bartender greeted me, and after taking my wings and diet coke order, she, knowing that I had been covering the race and who I was voting for asked: “How’s Trump doing?”

I said it would be a hard slog, with the media united against him and their willingness to bury Clinton’s corruption and the revelations from both Wikileaks and Project Veritas, I added that even if he managed to win beyond the margin of fraud, when you added the possibility of Evan McMullin taking Utah and an election thrown to the house (which doesn’t mean a Trump win, but that’s another post) it’s an uphill fight.

My mention of McMullin caught the interest of the lady to my right who asked who he was. She was drinking a beer while enjoying one of the excellent meal choices. She looked a few years older than me, had a pleasant face that seemed to have a bit of sadness behind it.

I told her both of the Never Trump people and their candidate, a worthy enough man, but I also argued that the reality is Jill Stein and Gary Johnson et/al notwithstanding we have a binary choice between two candidates that most americans find unacceptable and that if you want to make a choice rather than duck it, the options are Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.

She sighed, she talked about her support for Bernie Sanders, how she absolutely loved the man, found him honest and was frustrated that her choice was, in her mind, to either write him in or vote for Hillary Clinton, who she neither liked nor trust, over Donald Trump who she also didn’t trust.

That got the attention of all three ladies in the place who had been listening to my story of democrat deceit in the spanish community and were generally curious as to my argument. She asked why she should vote Trump if she doesn’t trust either nominee.

“Consider” I said, “We have one major candidate who if elected will have his every move scrutinized by the press, scrutinized by law enforcement, scrutinized by political enemies…” As I put it if he so much as thought of putting a foot wrong the entire weight of all of them would come down on him. No presidency in history would be under a stronger microscope.

“Meanwhile we have a different candidate who we know is dishonest, who we’ve already established will be protected from the consequences of her actions by the FBI, the press, by pols etc…” and I repeated things the various Clinton scandals, the lies, the wikileaks revelations and noted that in every case the powers that be had either enabled her or shielded her from the consequences of her actions.

I could see that all of them were paying attention to what I was saying so I closed: “That being the case, if you don’t trust either major candidate the only choice is to vote for Donald Trump because if he tries to do something wrong, you KNOW he won’t be given a pass on it unlike Hillary Clinton who you know will.”

There was a pause, the bartender seemed impressed, the woman sitting opposite of me had said little as a talked but was staring intently as if processing my argument, but the Sanders fan was clearly struck by what I said. After a few moments she broke the silence that had followed my argument.

“I had never thought of that.”

You could see the faintest change in her, as if she had been bearing several weights on her shoulders and had just been relieved of one of them. She expressed admiration both for my argument and my oratory skills. I introduced myself, mentioned my blog and invited her to check out the writing here when she got a chance and we chatted briefly on non political matters before I had to excuse myself, I needed to get home.

I spoke to the woman across at the bar, hoping my political talk had not disturbed her meal, on the contrary, she said, she found it very interesting and didn’t disagree with anything I had said. The bartender said the same as she cashed me out.

As for the woman to my right she thanked me with a slight smile. She had been was frustrated by her electoral choice before, she wasn’t any more.

There are a lot of people who are unhappy with their choices this election season, I don’t know how many have been moved by the arguments on this blog or the podcast. But while in the grand scheme of things what was said in that nearly empty restaurant was a tiny insignificant thing, heading home I knew that at least one mind and one vote had been changed.

I submit and suggest that the last best card to play is not a pro-Trump or an anti Hillary argument, it’s the pro-accountability argument to people who have little trust in Washington, the government or the press.

Those of us who want a government accountable to the people and to the law over the next four years should go out, meet people in your community at your local bar, at the barber shop, and even on your facebook page. Make the case for accountability in your everyday encounters over the next few weeks.

If we each move just one disenchanted voter in our community we can make a difference.

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Like this:

A few years ago I watched on PBS the Metropolitan Opera‘s staging of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelungs, which were played in sequence over a week, preceded by a making-of documentary. I liked the documentary.

I dislike most of Wagner’s music – too long, too many strident notes for my taste, but I was fascinated by the contraption:

the huge, glitch-prone contraption that served as a single set for all four operas in the Wagnerian cycle

The million-dollar contraption required that the Met’s floor be reinforced since it actually weighed a ton, malfunctioned frequently (including showing the Windows logo one time), and dominated every moment of the four operas.

But it was fun to look at. Look at the valkyrie ride in on the twenty four planks (for full effect raise the volume and watch it on your YouTube tv app):

If that doesn’t look like a seesaw’s worth of Wagnerian fun, I don’t know what does.

The presidential and vice-presidential debates are at least as long as the Wagner Cycle, drag on and on, hit too many strident notes, and like the Met’s contraption, weigh a ton. In order to watch, some feel the need to reinforce themselves with adult beverages.

Makes one wish the debates would bring the contraption for entertainment value. Imagine the armored candidates rollicking on the 24 planks.

However, once the fat lady sings, by now the best we could hope for is that the documentary will be better.

Moira Noonan & Fr Denis interviewed by WQPHOn Sunday at the former Madonna of the Holy Rosary Church in Fitchburg WQPH sponsored Holy Mass and healing service with Catholic Evangelist, Author and international speaker Moira Newman and Fr. Denis Phaneuf of the Diocese of saskatoon Saskatchewan and an advisor on the Vatican consultation on Exorcism and Deliverance Ministry.

And then there are allegations of quid pro quo, also known as tit for tat,

In a statement released by the State Department, Kennedy said he reached out because he wanted “to better understand a proposal the FBI had made to upgrade one of former Secretary Clinton’s emails prior to its public release” and that McCauley raised the topic of FBI slots in Iraq “as an entirely separate matter.” He said he could not speak to McCauley’s recollection but insisted: “There was no quid pro quo, nor was there any bargaining. At no point in our conversation was I under the impression we were bargaining.”

Kennedy also said in the statement his motivations “were never political.”

At a news conference in the White House Rose Garden, Mr. Obama said, “I have never seen in my lifetime, or in modern political history, any presidential candidate trying to discredit the elections and the election process before votes have even taken place.”

Maybe, if he’s serious about discrediting, Obama ought to tell his party to stop dumping raw sewage while they’re at it.

Fausta Rodriguez Wertz writes on U.S. and Latin American politics, news, and culture at Fausta’s Blog.

2. Every single major news organization, every single national newspaper, every major state paper and every major paper from individual cities have vastly more resources that James O’Keefe and Project Veritas. Any of them could have done the investigative work that Mr. O’Keefe and Project Veritas did and exposed these practices that have apparently been going on for decades.

They chose not to.

3. Conservatives have been saying this kind of thing has been going on for years. invariably Democrat pols their allies and every single major news organization, every single national newspaper practically every major state paper and practically every major city paper have been calling the people who are claiming this was happening “Conspiracy Theorists”.

They were not

4. There is a huge overlap between the people who work for NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, NYT, LAT, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune et/al and those who have worked for Democrats in public office. It is very likely that some of these people knew this stuff was going on and could have reported on it for the public good

They did not.

You know I’ll wager there were hundreds of people who got into journalism who thought they were going to be Woodward and Bernstein, who thought they were going to change the world and do good. They saw themselves as the boy rangers from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington taking on the rich and powerful.

I’ll bet they never imagined that by their cowardice and silence they would instead essentially become the Taylor machine keeping silent for the sake of the connected and to maintain their own positions instead.

It’s rather sad actually.

Closing thoughts

While it’s all well and good to get these revelations out there the real question is: What will we as a nation do about it? Will we do ANYTHING about it? How we answer that question will reveal who we are as a nation and determine once and for all what kind of government we deserve.

As a Catholic in general and a Christian in particular we are required to love and pray for both the people doing this to us, and the media who are enabling them by their silence. This is not an optional doctrine.

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Like this:

Henry Gondorff:It’s not like playing winos in the street. You can’t outrun …Hooker: [Interrupting] I don’t play for no winos.Henry Gondorff: …you gotta keep his con, even after you spent his money. He can’t know you took him.Hooker: You’re scared of him!Henry Gondorff: Right down to my socks buster. You’re talking about a guy wou’ll kill a grifter over a chunk of money wouldn’t support him for two days.

The Sting 1973

Screwtape:I have known a human defended from strong temptations to social ambition by a still stronger taste for tripe and onions.

CS Lewis Screwtape 8

The united outrage of the media over Donald Trump is, in many ways completely unfathomable.

It’s not his positions, are plenty of pols who from Ted Cruz to Herman Cain from Ronald Reagan to Barry Goldwater and more who have advocated positions similar to these.

It’s not his language. There have been plenty of Pols who have had untamed mouths and saucy speech from Jim Curley to Jim Traficant who have been on the scene.

It’s not his wealth, the number of very rich people who have run for office from Mike Bloomberg to George Washington to JFK likely can’t be counted.

It’s not even the alleged way he has treated women: Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy , need I say more?

No, to the media the crime of Donald trump, the ultimate crime, the crime that can’t be forgiven is he has revealed the big con.

Years ago I spoke to a pol who told me of a piece of wisdom an elderly office holder gave him when he first entered public life. He said most of it was a grift about making a comfortable living for yourself and if you’re very lucky you might just do some good along the way. Of course if your goal is to make that living you can’t let the people in on the con.

Thus the higher you go up the chain, the bigger the rewards for the position you have, and the more dependent you are on the con being maintained, because without that con you can’t get the wealth, the status or might risk being rejected by the arbiters of acceptability.

And that’s where Donald Trump throws a wrench into the system.

Unlike all the others who have talked about voter fraud, media bias, that the fix is in, Donald Trump is different.

He’s not dependent on either the political system or the media for the wealth he has amassed.

He’s got a built in fan base that all of the media’s efforts won’t be able to destroy

He doesn’t give a tinker cuss about what any of these people, who for decades treated him as a golden boy for ratings, copy and money who abandoned him think about him anymore.

He is like a rich man who had somehow convinced himself that a trophy wife loved him being showed tapes of that trophy wife in bed with her lover and at a party with her friends telling both that she never really loved her husband, it was all about what he could do for him, and wants revenge.

And that revenge is to expose the big con on a platform so large they can’t prevent a large amount of the public for seeing that they’ve been played for decades.

Personally I don’t think the price the media and the system are going to pay is worth it.

Closing thoughts. You might wonder if Mr. Trump is worried about the vengeance that both the system and media will take on him after the election is done, particularly if he loses. Alas for them both the now undeluded Trump knows three things.

As soon as the election is over those same people out for his blood right now will still have designs on the wealth and will be coming back hat in hand for a piece of it (and boy will he make them pay for it).

There is nothing stopping him from buying dying papers and making his own competing media putting those in fear of the diminishing job prospects in the press, in an interesting spot.

He’s also rich enough that if the entire media and government system decided they want revenge, he has enough that he, his children and his grandchildren can live full comfortable lives till the end of their days..

In other words short of actually killing him or his loved ones, they can’t do a thing to him, and he has the wealth and power to keep himself and his family secure.

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Bloggers Prayer

Oh God, you who gave free will to your creation, bless those who use that precious gift to blog.

May we though this gift of freedom of expression enlighten, entertain and inform our readers, and we ask particular blessing for those who bring your word across the net, that they may faithfully execute your command to make disciples of all nations.